Kidney Research UK gain round-the-clock security via Softwerx expertise

Kidney Research UK partnered with Microsoft security experts Softwerx to support the charity's cybersecurity aims whilst staying within budget. Softwerx advised them to adopt a Microsoft-first approach by adopting enhanced Microsoft security features and reducing spending on alternate third-party solutions. The charity had no capacity or desire to build their own internal security team, so they took advantage of Softwerx’s 24/7 Managed Detection and Response (MDR) offering via the Softwerx Security Operations Centre (SOC). Kidney Research UK now enjoy affordable, eyes-on, round-the-clock, enterprise-grade security support.

Customer Challenges

Because donors and beneficiaries trust Kidney Research UK with their sensitive data, the charity place great importance on a strong security posture. Yet they had no internal security expertise and no means to monitor their environment round-the-clock, even though alerts and incidents occurred on a 24-hour basis. Compounding this, as with most charities, Kidney Research UK's budget is strictly governed, and the expense of the enterprise-grade security they needed—including extended detection and response (XDR) and security information and event management (SIEM) systems—was prohibitive.

Partner Solution

Guided by UK cloud security specialist Softwerx, Kidney Research UK adopted a Microsoft-first security approach, deploying conditional access in Azure Active Directory and Microsoft 365 Defender solutions, including Defender for Cloud Apps, and Defender for Cloud. The charity then chose Softwerx’s SecureStandard security support bundle, augmented by SecureSentinel, which includes continuous Microsoft 365 Defender XDR and Microsoft Sentinel SIEM integration. Softwerx onboarded the client by ingesting their security logs via Microsoft Sentinel from the various Defender sources.

Customer Benefits

In addition to gaining round-the-clock, enterprise-grade, eyes-on MDR cybersecurity support by partnering with Softwerx, Kidney Research UK were also able to streamline security at a competitive price point by retiring legacy third-party security vendors. Softwerx security support now identifies, probes, and responds to all alerts and incidents straightaway. Kidney Research UK can rely on always-on unified security defence, greater threat intelligence, and faster responses.